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I had cararact surgery on my dominant Right eye a week ago.

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I had cararact surgery on my dominant Right eye a week ago. I had arranged to have the Right eye lense replaced with a lens for distance and a week later I was to have the left eye done with a lense for reading. I have come out of the right eye surgery with a reading eye. How can this happen? The only thing I can think of is that the wrong lense was put in the right eye. Is there any other reason this could have happened - I was warned about a 0.25 discrepancy with the lenses but not totally back to front - I have been told my right eye is now -0.5

Not really - I live in Oman. I have just been back to the eye surgeon and have had explained to me that he placed a lense in my eye which would give me a -0.23 sight. This was the closest to 0 considering my eye cornea dn depth etc. The lense seems to have taken a further -0.27 to the back of the eye which makes it seem like a lense which I had planned for the left eye and not a distance lense for my donimant right eye. does this make sense to you? the doctor is also talking about the possibility of lasik on the right eye after everything is settled to get better distance. Is this possible?

Dr. Rick :

Hi. I understand.....our time zones don't really match up, do they? We can use the Q&A system to address your question.

I have done thousands of cataract surgeries in the last two decades and I would like to address a few aspects of your issue.

First, you are less then a month into your post-op period. As the eye continues to heal, even with todays no stitch, no shot, clear cornea surgery, your refractive needs will change. I often see changes as far as two or three months out. Give things time.

As to your current refraction of -.50, which is -.27 off of the predicted "perfect" -.23, this, in my book is a very good result, especially less then two weeks post-op.

For discussions sake, let's just say that when everything is said and done you are left with a -.50 in your dominant right eye forever. This would give you a blurry 20/25 distance vision and you might still be able to make out some of the 20/20 line. That is very good vision. I don't think you would even notice this slight refractive need in the vast majority of your daily activities. However, if you did, very thin glasses would fix things nicely although I understand that glasses are something you are hoping to avoid with your monovision outcome post surgery......

Remember the calculations used to select the lens for implantation are complicated, relay on many possible variables and are not 100% perfect --they give a range of final refraction outcomes at best. I doubt very much that the "wrong lens" was placed inside your eye.

As to using lasik to remove this minute refractive error, yes it could easily be done. Would I tell a family member to have it done or would I undergo lasik myself if I was in your current situation? No.

I think you are in the hands of an excellent surgeon and I would consul you to continue under her care.

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